BS: Hedgehogs

Subject: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 18 Aug 04 - 10:43 AM

Hello, I havent seen a hedgehog for ages, were have they all gone?
you see loads of them in winter, but not in summer,
maybe they all sleeping or something? not sure really.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Amos
Date: 18 Aug 04 - 10:49 AM

Aw Jesus, John!!

A

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Sttaw Legend
Date: 18 Aug 04 - 10:52 AM

Have you looked in your dustbin or down your bog jOhn

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: MudGuard
Date: 18 Aug 04 - 10:52 AM

They all work in the electric power stations (electricity from hedgehogs ;-))

Apart from that, most of them take a rest on the roadside after some car or other has run over them :-(

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Fibula Mattock
Date: 18 Aug 04 - 10:58 AM

I've never seen a live one. Ever.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Aug 04 - 11:01 AM

they are insectivores - and have to spend a lot more time during the winter searching for food.   much easier on them during the summer.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Aug 04 - 11:03 AM

They are handy to clean your wellies on.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: HRH ted of hull
Date: 18 Aug 04 - 11:04 AM

I had several living under my old house on sunk island, saw them on the lawn many a time.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Aug 04 - 11:15 AM

I've only ever eaten them roasted. Just like chicken!! You can use the oil from them for earache!

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: pdq
Date: 18 Aug 04 - 11:19 AM

Here are some possible reasons for the shortage of hedgehogs:

   1) cats

   2) dogs

   3) cars

   4) their poor performance when it comes to burrowing through concrete

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Aug 04 - 11:25 AM

Have you seen any at night, I've seen plenty, that's when they come out. Usually if they're about during the day it means they're poorly

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 18 Aug 04 - 11:27 AM

?John? Hedgehogs hibernate in winter.

I've not seen a hedgehog in our garden over the last 4 years and I'm not sure why. I know pdq suggested cats but we have always had cats and I've seen hedgehogs in other places we've lived.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 18 Aug 04 - 11:32 AM

I reckon we have strange hedgehogs in Hull then Jon!
I see quite a few of them in autumn/winter, but havn't seen one around here since the hot weather came.
still see plenty of foxes and squirrels though.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: *daylia*
Date: 18 Aug 04 - 11:52 AM

I think this might be your answer, Sir John.

Here's a clip from the Beds & Herts Hedgehog Rescue website in the UK;

BBC News: Hedgehogs suffer sharp decline

The British hedgehog population has plummeted by up to half over the course of a decade, a survey suggests.

The report has prompted fears that the population of the prickly creatures is slowly being wiped out.

The count was conducted by volunteers for a survey funded by Mammals Trust UK and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee. Intensified farming methods are mooted as the main reason for the sharp decline in hedgehog numbers but other human activities are also blamed.

Even as the survey results were being released it emerged that fast food chain McDonald's had agreed to alter the design of its ice cream containers, which wildlife campaigners claimed were death-traps to hungry hedgehogs.

The poll was carried out in 2001 and compared with a previous, similar study undertaken in 1991.

Decrease

Hedgehog numbers are shown to have dropped nationally by 20-30% - a reduction of around 2.5 million in the overall population. But in some areas, notably East Anglia, the decrease is up to 50%, while a 40% drop was recorded in Yorkshire, Humberside and the South East.

Paul Bright, of Royal Holloway College, University of London, who analysed the study, said the results were "worrying". "We tend to assume there are lots of hedgehogs around because we see them in our gardens but that does not necessarily mean they are in abundance in the countryside," he said.

The popular belief that hedgehogs die as a result of being knocked down in the road is not seen as the main reason for their decline.
Predators and disease are factors but intensive farming and pesticides are thought to be big killers. Mr Bright said the removal of short grassland around the margins of fields had lost the hedgehog its favoured habitat.

Stuck in a McFlurry

Animal welfare groups have also welcomed the move by McDonald's to issue "hedgehog-friendly" ice cream cups, after a spate of deaths.
The animals were getting their heads stuck inside the McDonald's McFlurry containers while sniffing for food, ending up starving to death.

Selected restaurants will stock the new style pots from next month. The company blames the problem on litter bugs.

Meanwhile in the Uists islands in Scotland, where hedgehog numbers have spiralled to at least 5,000, Mammals Trust UK is working to stop a hedgehog cull taking place.

Scottish Natural Heritage wants to exterminate 5,000 hedgehogs, which they believe are responsible for the decline in internationally important populations of birds. Mammals Trust UK has applied for a licence to relocate approximately 50 hedgehogs, as part of a trial translocation.

© Beds & Herts Hedgehog Rescue
Registered Charity No. 1082377


Now, how many woodies woulda woodchuckchuck ... that's not right ... never mind ...

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 18 Aug 04 - 12:01 PM

I believe there is a distinct lack of female hedgehogs these days and the males are getting desperate. I heard a male apologising yesterday as he climbed off a hairbrush that someone had thrown out.
Best wishes.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: MBSLynne
Date: 18 Aug 04 - 01:44 PM

They've all gone to see their flat mates....

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Megan L
Date: 18 Aug 04 - 01:48 PM

But they wont let us export them from western isles

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: open mike
Date: 18 Aug 04 - 02:35 PM

We don't have them in the western hamisphere,
i think they are an "old world" species..but
i think they look a bit like the Echidna which
i think is form OZ and NZ. they have them in Sweden
and on Gotland. how they got way out 6there in the
middle of the baltic is beyond me...did they take a
ride on the ferry? (3-5 hours) in Swedish they are
called Igelkott.
and i think gypsies used to call them something like
Hotchy-Witchy and would bake them by covering with clay
then break open when done...i think this helped to deal
with the spines. maybe the porcupine is our closest
critter in the U.S. are their spines used for any thing/
pens, decoration, do they poke you and hurt you or are
tehy soft, more like hair? have yo ever touched or held
one? do they bite or scratch? do they roll up in a ball
like an armadillo?

                                       
>             /////////                        
>            ///////////                        
>       __oo' ///////////                        
>      a ___ ///////////                     
>            ^^      ^^                        
>                                                   
>          The EDJOG                           
http://www.khyri.com/hedgehog/
http://hem.passagen.se/hedgehogs/hedgehogs.html

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: GUEST,Anne Croucher
Date: 18 Aug 04 - 02:43 PM

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: GUEST,Van
Date: 18 Aug 04 - 03:00 PM

This is the first time since I moved into my home 14 years ago that we haven't had a resident hedgehog to give the stale catfood to - perhaps they preferred fresh.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: GUEST,Anne Croucher
Date: 18 Aug 04 - 03:03 PM

where did it go??!!
Can computers get hicups?

The hedgehog - as I was saying when interupted - is a sweet little creature, except it often has fleas and ticks, but a quick spray of insecticide suitable for pet birds will sort them out, it has small teeth for demolishing insects, worms, slugs and the like, and if picked up carefully just rolls up and hopes you'll go away, but will then unroll to see if you have gone away, and you can look at it.

They make a frightful noise munching up the unfortunate slug etc, and it can be rather alarming to wander out to enjoy the night air and hear them eating. Apparently when mating they make a terrific row, but they are usually not vocal at all.

Foxes eat them, they leave the prickly skin intact but extract everything from it leaving a sad curled up bog brush with no handle ex hoggie.

There used to be hedgehogs around here, and might still be, but the fox population is much higher than when we came here about 25 years ago now, so they might have all been et.

The spines are modified hair, and when they are born they are short and soft, but soon harden in the air and give the infant some protection. The adults can run quite fast in a sprint, but they tend to bumble along pushing their noses - which are on the end of a ratherpointed little face - into everything to see if there is something edible underneath. They are quite strong and can push aside quite heavy objects if they deem them to be in the way.

They hybernate in cold weather, and a number get killed by dozing in piles of wood and inflamable rubbish in early November, unaware that on the 5th, or thereabouts we celebrate the gunpowder plot with bonfires and fireworks.

Apparently they thrive on catfood, should you wish to feed them.

Anne

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: SINSULL
Date: 18 Aug 04 - 03:21 PM

Hedgehogs and flamingoes were used to play croquet in "Alice In Wonderland". I have seen an echidna and a wombat but never a hedgehog. Woodchucks are common in the States and at least my cats get along well with them.
Stream of Semi-consciousness from SINS

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Sorcha
Date: 18 Aug 04 - 03:33 PM

Laurel, hedgehogs are a bit softer than porcupines, but still a bit prickly. Kid across the street had a pet one for a while. It would sit in the palm of his hand, and you could stroke the quills down nicely. Cute little thing. I think it died of natural causes. Yes, they do roll up in a ball.

Interesting Note: In the US, the porcupine is a protected species, the ONLY time you may kill one is for survival food. This is because they are so slow and easy to walk up to and club to death when on the ground. They spend most of their lives in trees, usually but not always, pine trees. If you see a girdled pine tree, a porky has been at it; they eat the bark and the insects under the bark. (Don't ask me how I learn this stuff......LOL)

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: pdq
Date: 18 Aug 04 - 03:38 PM

The United States is kind and generous country.

Whenever we see our global neighbors in trouble, we come to their.

Since the UK is in the throws of "the great hedgehog depression", we will surely help.

Simply petition the government and wait about two years.
Of course, we do not have any hedgehogs, but we do have a great excess of armadillos. Also an excess of American Cheese, so we throw in a few million kilos of that as part of the deal.

True, everything about the armadillo is larger. They make huge amounts of noise when they eat or mate, and they sound a bit like a gravel truck as they stomp though the brush, but they are best we can do at present.

Ah, what are friends for but to help in time of need.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: jacqui.c
Date: 18 Aug 04 - 04:05 PM

Did you know that if you delouse a hedgehog they get withdrawal symptoms?

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: GUEST,Dr. Do It.
Date: 18 Aug 04 - 04:24 PM

After delousing they should be liberally sprinkled with hundreds and thousands. They then still get that familiar feeling of being crawling live as the sprinkles shimmy through thier spines.

As an added safety precaution it has been recommended that the multi coloured hundreds are thousands are employed, as opposed to the chocolate variety.

Tests show that no hedgehogs have been run over whilst sprinkled with multi coloured hundreds and thousands, leading experts to believe they have reflective properties that show up in cars headlights.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 18 Aug 04 - 04:31 PM

Thanks for the info Daylia. I moved to East Anglia which seems to have suffered the worst decline and there are fields either side of the garden which they spray a few times each year. I guess it's not a very friendly place for hedgehogs.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: KateG
Date: 18 Aug 04 - 05:10 PM

If hedgehogs are insectivores, surely spraying fields with insecticide cannot be good for their long term survival. No bugs, no hedgehogs...or birds for that matter.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 19 Aug 04 - 08:14 PM

thanbks for the info,
i , it looks like East Angular and Yorkshire got the most missing hege hogs, [maybe they both farming areas why?]
i didn't know foxes eat hedhoges, there is still loads of foxes here, [sepecially in Cottingham, [thats near hull, but a bit to the west, thats were loads of students live.
and its another reason not to eat macdomalds.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 19 Aug 04 - 08:35 PM

John, I followed up with some readings of other sites. It appears to me that some of it is a case of the fox being accused as being the devil incarnate again. It does seem that the fox will take a hedgehog but the badger is a greater natural enemy. The only descriptions I read of the eating in the way described a few posts above also was by badgers, not foxes.

Hope that doesn't make a case for badger baiting... Nature is nature and I like hedgehogs, foxes and badgers.

As for your East Anglia, etc. question, I think it does support the idea of large intensified arable farming being a large factor towards reasons for the reduction of hedgehog populations. Where I lived in Wales also had a lot of farms but the land was different, much of it hilly, with little depth of soil - more suited for sheep farming.

Jon

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 19 Aug 04 - 08:47 PM

now that you have alerted me to this sad state of affairs, I will look out for hedgehogs and offer them kindly words of advice, a small financial endowment and suggest a suitable course of re-training to fit their circumstances. I will send them on their way with a light heart and a twinkling smile.

We should all be kind to hedgehogs as they do seem to get the rough end of things. Why eat hedgehogs - chicken is cheap enough, and surely by the time you have heated up a hedgehog and drained off the oil - your ear ache should have passed.

Once again sir jOhn you have tugged at the heart strings of the nation.

mind you if we get a thred that starts I am a hedgehog and I've just voted for the BNP, I will start running over the little bastards again.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: SINSULL
Date: 19 Aug 04 - 09:26 PM

And speaking of spraying...there is a strong smell of skunk outside and one of my kitties hasn't come home. SIGH.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Willie-O
Date: 19 Aug 04 - 09:36 PM

we have a couple living in the upstairs bathroom (in cages fortunately), a result of my son's fascination. Fascination has waned some now that he has a pair to clean up after, but they are quite well-behaved, low-maintenance pets and cute as the dickens.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 19 Aug 04 - 09:36 PM

Hello John,
My post didn't make too much sense , i been drinking , don't knoew if you understood it, so
this waht i meant
I did Not mean why east angular and yorkshire is farming places, i meant [i think why they are farming areas is becuasese its flat therr, and easy to drive tractors there etc [i can drive a tractort, but its easy to tip them up, ie dont corners too fast or tip up]

i meant farming areas, use more pestycides, so kill more hedfges,
and i'm really suprised that foxes eat them, [because they too spiky]
is that how to spell spkiy? spicky?
anyway, they will prefer other things like chickens i recon, and only eat ehdgoeds wehn other thinhs not around, [why would you eat a hedgogs, if you could eat a chicken?
answer=you wouldent!
moles-moles are soft to eat,
do foxes eat veg, ie salad etc, [there is loads of lettuce places and cabbage fields here, i don't know ig they ever get hassle from foxes.

i think a lot of foxes around here eat rubbish, [from the rubbish bags, [they dont have bins in cottingham, [i know this as i was a dustman there, and if they put too much stuff in the rubbish bags, it splits wehen you picj it up, and the rubbish , goes all over the road.

sometines, they are already split when you get to them, foxes?
or dogs, [not many stray dogs in cottingham though, [posh area], probably foxes.

bnp are rubbish, just rasict bastards, total rubbish.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 19 Aug 04 - 09:39 PM

spiky.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 19 Aug 04 - 09:46 PM

anyway=i think welittledrummer is taking the piss,
how would you like it if you was a hedgeog , and all your food was poisuned with insectiseds? [you wouldent]
or all the insects that you want to eat have been killed by chemicals, so you got nothing to eat [you wouldent like it],
so don't take the piss out of hedhgeogs.

maybe you was joking, but some jokes arent funny.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 20 Aug 04 - 04:10 AM

How would I like it if I were a hedgehog.

Surrounded by predators, a poisoned environment and inadequate protection from my spikes.

Some days I wouldn't notice the difference.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 20 Aug 04 - 05:23 AM

John, I think you missundertood my last post. The implications of the 2 types of farming are different.

You could have a lot of farms in an area, eg between the tiny village in Wales I lived in and the equally small neighbouring village, I can come up with 7 plus 2 small holdings, but most of it was just grazing land for sheep and cattle, the fields were small and not much need for chemicals.

In this part of Norfolk, it is mostly crops sprayed with I don't know what and a tendancy towards bigger fields.

Jon

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: MudGuard
Date: 20 Aug 04 - 05:53 AM

Jon, you wrote:
I moved to East Anglia which seems to have suffered the worst decline
Any connection between your move and the decline? ;-) ;-) ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 20 Aug 04 - 06:06 AM

Lol Mudguard. As there has been no corresponding increase in the hedgehog population in N Wales, I feel reasonably confident I am not to blame :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: MudGuard
Date: 20 Aug 04 - 06:27 AM

It might take decades for the hedgehog population in Llandudno to get back to normal *) ;-) ;-) ;-)








*) (both in numbers and in mind)

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 20 Aug 04 - 06:30 AM

lets blame the hedgehogs. how do they expect to make friends covered in spikes, not to mention the fleas.....

if they can't make the effort to evolve into something sensible....

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: GUEST,noddy
Date: 20 Aug 04 - 09:43 AM

the other week saw a tiny tiny baby hedghog in the garden during a barbeque..no dont worry we let it go as it eats the slugs in my garden. But we discussed at the length what mother would let a child out at that time of night ... and in that company?

Then today saw a full size one in the College gardens. One of the gardeners was holding it and it did not curl up.. She put it down and it sort of sat there ..thinking "Now how did I get Here ?" before wandering off into the undergrowth.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Bagpuss
Date: 20 Aug 04 - 10:17 AM

Behavioural evolution in action. When frighened, in the past the majority of hedgehogs would roll in a ball and a minority would run. Now the position is reversed as a result of the scared rolling in a ball hedgehogs getting splatted by cars and deleting their genes, leaving the running hedgehogs to escape and reproduce.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 20 Aug 04 - 11:06 AM

To be sung to the tune of "The Eton Boating Song":

The Army, the Navy, the Airforce,
Have proved beyond doubt, great and small,
That of all the mammals, the Hedgehog,
Has never been buggered at all.
But recent researches at Oxford
Combined wit a paper from Yale,
Have proved you can bugger a Hedgehog,
If you shave all the spines off it's tail.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: GUEST,Mingulay
Date: 20 Aug 04 - 11:35 AM

A hedgehog was sitting nervously by the side of a road when he was spotted by two rabbits who happened to be passing. On enquiry they discovered that he was somewhat afraid of crossing the road but needed to get to the other side to meet his friend the chicken who had already completed this manouevre. No problem said the rabbits who did this sort of thing all the time. All you have to do is wait until you see a car coming, walk out into the road and sit down. As the car approaches line yourself up in the centre of the headlights and duck. The car will then pass right over you and you can move on your way repeating the procedure as necessary. The rabbit, although still somewhat nervous, could see the logic in this and decided to give it a try. He walked out into the road in front of a car, sat down, lined himself up between the headlights and ducked.

There was a loud squishing and splatting noise.

One rabbit turned to the other with a look of horror and said

"Oooh! You don't see many Robin Reliants about these days".

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 15 Sep 04 - 03:21 AM

I saw one on Monday night, it was in Cottingham, first one i seen for ages.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 15 Sep 04 - 03:29 AM

It must run pretty fast John cause I saw it on Tuesday morning, passing through Gainsborough.
Best wishes.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 15 Sep 04 - 03:30 AM

Maybe it got a lift to Gainsbrough?

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Gurney
Date: 15 Sep 04 - 04:26 AM

Someone wondered if it is the Echidna in NZ. Nope, thats a Oz animal. We have the European Hedgehog, introduced.
Where I live in Auckland, although it is sub-tropical, they still hibernate. The killer here is not dogs and cats(it would be an impressive cat that would take on an even half-grown hedgehog!) but GARDENERS.
Burning rubbish kills them, but slug pellets (slug bait) are particularly nasty, it takes them several days to die, lying gasping in the open. They don't eat the bait, I think, just the dying snails and slugs. They also get trapped in drains, as they aren't that good at backing up. It's a short and nasty life, being an urban Hedgehog.

If you hear one in the garden, take in the slug bait. And you can hear them, noisy little devils.
Mrs. Tiggywinkle was the least effective crossing warden Beatrix Potter ever wrote of.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 15 Sep 04 - 04:42 AM

I can believe all that Gurney but it seems sort of ironic that gardners are responsible for so many hedgehog deaths. A little self powered slug/snail eater would be very welcome here and I'm sure preferable to using chemicals.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Ella who is Sooze
Date: 15 Sep 04 - 05:22 AM

I rescued one from next doors staffy bull terrier last year. Took the hedgehog to the vets, who fixed him and gave him back to us. He recouperated in a families orchard in a little house made just for him and then we released him once he was better.

He was in a bit of a state really (minus prickles, a bit bald and very frightened - well so would you be after being shaken by a pit bull), but at least he survived, flea ridden little blighter though!

BTW... the pit bull had to have treatment too for prickle puncture marks. He's not a violent dog, very stupid and soft and thinks all round spikey things are his toys.

Harry (hedgehog) visited family's garden again this year so he ok.

E

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Paco Rabanne
Date: 15 Sep 04 - 06:49 AM

Squashed one flat on the way back from Withernsea last night.Had to swerve to hit it as well.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 15 Sep 04 - 07:30 AM

As you enter Ilkeston in Derbyshire there is a road sign with a frog on it.

Apparently they have built a tunnel for the frogs to go down under the road to avoid being squashed - a sort of underpass. How do the frogs know that they have to take the underpass?

if you can teach a frog to go under an underpass - perhaps you could do the same with hedgehogs and prevent calamities of the type described.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: GUEST,SueB
Date: 15 Sep 04 - 11:48 AM

I've never seen a porcupine - it's useful to know they're protected.
I've seen a bear crossing the road, once, and several badgers, and a tarantula. We used to see javelina's every now and then, but not lately.

I'm rather intrigued by jOhn's suggestion that moles are soft to eat.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Sep 04 - 06:56 PM

The fox knows many things -- the hedgehog, one *big* one. -- Archilochus, ca. 650 B.C.E.

Isaiah Berlin used this saying to classify philosophers -- hedgehogs & foxes corresponding roughly to what Whitehead & Russell called simple-minded & muddle-headed.

There are at least two distinct songs complaining of the hedgehog's sexual unavailability.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: GUEST,SueB
Date: 16 Sep 04 - 12:08 AM

Please, share the songs!

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 16 Sep 04 - 03:10 AM

Hedgehogs may often be seen climbing off brushes. Obviously trying to keep themselves clean eh?? Best wishes.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 16 Sep 04 - 07:11 PM

do we want songs from people who contemplated shagging a hedgehog? I know Martin Gibson insists its an open forum, but surely we draw the line somewhere.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Sep 04 - 04:19 PM

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 17 Sep 04 - 04:22 PM

too late!

The hedgehog song or the hedgehog can never be buggered


and some others

The hedgehog song

hedgehog pie

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Joe_F
Date: 17 Sep 04 - 05:58 PM

MMario: That's one of them. Fragments of the other one may be found in the DigiTrad, embedded in other songs, but I don't see it complete & by itself:

Extensive experimentation
By Darwin and Huxley and Hall
Have proved that the ass of the hedgehog
Can scarcely be buggered at all.

Subsequent investigations
Have incontrovertibly shown
That relative safety at Harvard
Is enjoyed by the hedgehog alone.

In the process of syphilization
From anthopoid apes down to man,
The prize is awarded to Harvard
For fucking whatever it can.

But the hedgehog, that tough little bastard,
Has spines to protect it from rapes,
Yet the Yale men have answered its challenge
And now fuck it the way they do apes.

Why don't they do down at Harvard
What freshmen are doing at Yale?
To successfully bugger the hedgehog,
They shave all the spines off its tail.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: GUEST,Barrie Roberts
Date: 17 Sep 04 - 08:28 PM

As an erstwhile keeper of pet hedgehogs, i can tell you that hedgehogs are remarkably resistant to chemical poisoning. They can absorb far more of most deadly substances than we can, which raises doubt about any 'poisoned food' explanation of their decline.

Pete Stanley once told me that he had an American guest years ago who was astonished to find a hedgehog, one summer's night, lapping the saucer of milk at the kitchen door which Pete had put out. Once introduced to this foreign creature, the American's immediate question was, 'Is a varmint or a critter?'

Perhaps they've all been eaten by American tourists.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: keberoxu
Date: 10 Aug 16 - 04:21 PM

From the weblog of Canut Reyes, founding member of the Gipsy Kings.

Recipe from my mother, on How to Prepare a Hedgehog.

She made a hole in the hedgehog's hind leg, there to insert the valve from the bicycle tire pump, in order to fill the hedgehog with air.
Afterwards, when the carcass was all swollen with air, Maman tied a string to the hedgehog's tongue, and used the string to bind up the muzzle and mouth so that air would not escape.
Then she used a razor to remove any remaining quills.
She dunked the carcass in boiling water.

With a knife she removed the fuzzy stuff ("duvet") from the hide.
With a scissors, she opened the abdomen in order to gut the carcass, and would then clean it four or five times with boiling water.
After cutting off the four legs and the head, Maman cut the meat into small pieces.

She got a stew-pot and -- uh-oh -- "le faisait revenir"? "made it come back?!" HELP ME MONIQUE! well, whatever she did, she did so with:
garlic
salt
pepper
thyme
bay leaves
onions

She cooked the hedgehog in the stew-pot for half an hour.
It was our favorite dish.

entered February 2006
the translation from the French is keberoxu's fault

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Jack Campin
Date: 10 Aug 16 - 06:40 PM

Hedgehogs are very common in New Zealand and just as cute there as they are in the UK. But:

http://www.doc.govt.nz/nature/pests-and-threats/animal-pests/animal-pests-a-z/hedgehogs/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedgehogs_in_New_Zealand

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8592678.stm

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/blogs/in-our-nature/7248769/Wildlife-baddies-The-Hedgehog

NZ joke:

- Why did the hedgehog cross the road?
- He wanted to show the world he had guts.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 11 Aug 16 - 04:48 AM

Whilst on survival training I also ate hedgehog which I had to trap. When dead, I dropped the whole thing in boiling water for about ten seconds and the skin and spikes came away easily. I then roasted it in my own made clay oven and ate it with a collection of wild herbs. Hedgehog tastes like pig.... and the bonus is it comes with ready made toothpicks.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Thompson
Date: 11 Aug 16 - 07:58 AM

In Ireland, the decline is certainly caused by the Department of Agriculture's seeming war against ancient hedges.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: peregrina
Date: 11 Aug 16 - 07:11 PM

Cat food, a dish of water, kibbled peanuts, but no bread and milk: hedgehogs are lactose intolerant,

Numbers in the UK are going down as fast as tigers.
Why?
Incremental loss of habitat, slug pellets, declining numbers of bugs (remember when car windshields got covered in insects?), the vogue for decking and shingle, farmers removing hedges, pesticides, strimmer and mower injuries... they are vulnerable creatures. The average life-span is 18 months. When food supply is poor, they eat too high a proportion of slugs, snails, and worms. Those carry really nasty parasites including lungworm, fluke, and coccidiosis, which can kill small weak animals very fast.

There are many rescues and excellent information sites.

Help hedgehogs by linking gardens, Hedgies need to forage 2-4 km per night. A hole at the base of a garden fence the size of a CD is all that's needed to give access.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: robomatic
Date: 12 Aug 16 - 12:50 PM

"The fox knows many things. The hedgehog knows one big thing."

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: robomatic
Date: 12 Aug 16 - 01:05 PM

Sorry about that last post. I'd done a search through the thread on 'fox' and it didn't turn up anything (to my surprise) and I added the above quote. Silly me.

All I can add to this learned discussion is why use slug and snail pellets when a saucer of beer will draw them all in and offer the hungry 'edgehog' a well marinated meal.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Joe_F
Date: 12 Aug 16 - 05:56 PM

Alas, we have no hedgehogs in America. But we have another animal that knows one big thing: the skunk.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Iains
Date: 13 Aug 16 - 05:12 PM

We have frog crossings, toad crossings, why no hedgehog crossings?
http://www.deangreenteam.co.uk/Diary-131015.html. Perhaps the fleas are claustrophobic

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Iains
Date: 13 Aug 16 - 05:17 PM

should have done a bit more looking before posting previously



Some lucky hedgehogs are no longer worried about becoming road kill after being provided with the UK's first dedicated road crossing.
Hedgehogs kept safe with own road crossing
Staying safe: hedgehogs use their road crossing

Celebrity hedgehog Sonic joined forces with a lollipop lady to create a special crossing to ensure his fellow spiky pals made it across the road unscathed.

Four hedgehogs road tested the crossing in Twickenham, London, near a hedgehog centre.

Research reveals that Britain's hedgehogs have declined by a third in the past ten years.
A hedgehog using the crossing
A hedgehog using the crossing

Increased road traffic is the main threat to the poor creatures, with a dead hedgehog found on roads on average every one kilometre.

Between July and September 2010 over 4,000 hedgehog causalities were recorded, with experts predicting as many as 50,000 hedgehogs die on the roads each year.

Hedgehog handler Trevor Smith hopes the road crossing will help.

He said: 'Our hedgehogs had great fun ruling the roads for the day with the hedgehog crossing, and it will hopefully encourage everyone to do their bit in helping the hedgehogs of Britain stick around for years to come.'

Read more: http://metro.co.uk/2010/11/11/hedgehogs-kept-safe-with-own-road-crossing-577860/#ixzz4HFWW91bS

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Senoufou
Date: 14 Aug 16 - 05:47 AM

In the village of Erpingham in Norfolk UK (not far from our village) there's a hedgehog hospital. They hold an Open Day every year, and give out interesting information about hedgehogs and their problems. The lady said that they're often brought in with terrible strimmer injuries, slug pellet poisoning (from eating poisoned slugs) and lung-worm infestation. They are also being affected by people changing their gardens into more sterile environments and putting up fences which stop the hedgehogs going through gardens to find worms and other food. Many of course are killed on the road.
The lady has several sheds for the sick ones to recuperate, and a kind vet comes, when needed, to treat them for free. She has a 'pet' albino one and you could hold him and stroke his nose.
They collect for this charity in Cromer too. I always contribute, as it's almost a full-time job for the people who look after the creatures, and I admire their work.
I put out uneaten cat-food but never milk (as a previous poster has said, they can't tolerate lactose) I know they've been in the garden as they leave poo on my lawn! (Quite distinctive, but I won't go into details!) Lovely, primitive little creatures, and so vulnerable.

In my last, very large garden on the edge of a field, I put out a long line of peanuts, raisins and a dish of cat food. I was delighted one evening to see, in a row, a grey squirrel, a rabbit and a hedgehog munching away together. It was like Rag Tag and Bobtail in person!

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: peregrina
Date: 14 Aug 16 - 05:58 AM

Senoufou it's lovely to hear about your local hedgehog hospital.
To those who eat hedgehogs: I'm sure that might have been fine a decade ago, but now
that they're numbers are dropping so drastically, it's wrong.

I rescued on that was out in daylight on Monday, brough it to vet for fluids and warmth,
it was discharged, had just started parasite treatment, but died a day later. A tiny thing, far too skinny for its size.

A neighbour brought me one that was out in daylight later in the week; urgent care at
vet, started parasite treatment, and I brought it to an expert rescue centre.

Yes, traffic is a problem, so are pesticides, loss of hedges and habitat, incremental
loss of habitat from fences and shingle in gardens. But what many hedgehogs are dying of
now, in the hot dry weather, is parasites. A healthy hedgehog has parasites and its immunne system can keep them in equilibrium. A poorly hedgehog develops an excessive parasite burden. The mild winter this year did not wipe out slugs and snails as much as harsher weather would have. WHen the insect supply dwindles, hedgehogs eat too many of the things that transmit parasites.

Plant pollinators!

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: sapper82
Date: 14 Aug 16 - 01:58 PM

St. Tigywinkles, near Aylesbury, is the original hedgehog hospital, but sadly the founder, Les Stocker, died recently.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Senoufou
Date: 14 Aug 16 - 02:35 PM

Sandra Craske is the lady who runs the Hedgehog Rescue Centre at her home ('Arcturus', Erpingham) She's done this for years, wonderful work.
I'm a member of the Norfolk Wildlife Trust, and they too do sterling work in an effort to halt the decline in numbers of hedgehogs.

I dug a huge pond in my last house (with help!) and successfully attracted dragonflies, frogs and newts etc but one thing I was careful to do was to create a 'beach' around the edges with pebbles, so daft hedgehogs who fell in could get out again. Apparently they're always falling into things, and once in, they drown.

They seem to be clumsy, ill-adapted to our modern world and vulnerable.
It's surprising how fast they can run though. They sort of hoist themselves up on their little legs and go for it!

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Senoufou
Date: 14 Aug 16 - 02:37 PM

Forgot to say, they make a hell of a noise when mating. I woke one night and thought someone was having a serious asthma attack outside my window, huffing and puffing like anything. Grabbed my torch and there were two hedgehogs having a great time!

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: sapper82
Date: 14 Aug 16 - 04:20 PM

"Forgot to say, they make a hell of a noise when mating."

Tell me about it!
Knocking on for 30y years back, when I still lived in Southampton, we were woken by a pair of hedgehogs in next door's garden!!

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Senoufou
Date: 14 Aug 16 - 04:54 PM

Hahaha sapper82! I used to wonder if it was because the one on top was being dreadfully pricked by his partners prickles, but apparently they make their bristles lie flat at such times!

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Joe_F
Date: 15 Aug 16 - 04:08 PM

There is a riddle about that in America:

Q. How do porcupines make love?
A. Ve-ry care-ful-ly.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 16 Aug 16 - 05:30 AM

It amazes me that hedgehogs make so much noise when mating.... you would think they would be busy being 'careful' with all those spikes!

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 16 Aug 16 - 05:30 AM

Sorry Joe F.. didn't see your post.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Senoufou
Date: 16 Aug 16 - 10:27 AM

You'd think they'd adopt the Missionary Position. That way their spines would be facing outwards with only their soft tummies touching!

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: keberoxu
Date: 21 Jul 17 - 04:53 PM

On the bulletin board of the public library, of all places,
someone posted a for-sale poster for baby hedgehogs.
Here in eastern Massachusetts,
where hedgehogs are not native.
Wonder how the parent hedgehogs got here?

by the way,
almost all of the phone-number tags
have been torn off of the for-sale poster already.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 21 Jul 17 - 05:55 PM

probably exotic pygmy hedgehogs...???

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 21 Jul 17 - 05:59 PM

The old joke. Can't resist.

What's the difference between a hedgehog and a Volvo estate?

With a hedgehog, the pricks are on the outside....



Where's me coat...

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: ranger1
Date: 21 Jul 17 - 10:49 PM

Keb, they're probably African hedgehogs, which can be found in many pet stores.

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 Jul 17 - 10:57 PM

I knew it would be keberoxu opening an old thread. At least she has something to say, unlike so many of the Russian spammers who drop in to promote something in Cyrillic that no one else can read. :-)

Hedgehogs. Any animal that has been moved to a place where it doesn't have natural enemies can be a problem. When people get tired of them, they dump them somewhere - often in or near public lands. This is a problem. #ParkRangerPointOfView

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: JHW
Date: 22 Jul 17 - 09:34 AM

How does a hedgehog find its way?    Splatnav

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 22 Jul 17 - 09:56 AM

what's the difference between a hedgehog and a gerbil...???


you wouldn't want to stick a hedgehog up your.........


[Cultural reference: urban legend Richard Gere rumours...]

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: Greg F.
Date: 22 Jul 17 - 10:40 AM

I thought that was a hamster...

Subject: RE: BS: Hedgehogs
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 22 Jul 17 - 10:53 AM

gerbil.. hamster.. see if you can tell the difference....????? 😜